- "Morning 4587, beautiful day!"
- —Peter Yorke mocking Oliver Queen[src]
Peter Yorke (born January 1, 1978)[1] is a former prison guard of Slabside Maximum Security Prison. He was fired after being reported by the guards for badly treating the inmates because of his own personal issues and attempting to kill Oliver Queen. Peter is also the husband of Jenna Yorke and the father of Noah Yorke.
Biography
Yorke was born on January 1, 1978. At the age of 19, he joined the army and served 8 years in the military. After being injured in line of duty, he started working at Slabside Maximum Security Prison. He worked there for 12 years, and although Yorke had a clean record as a prison guard, he was not well-liked by the guards and inmates at Slabside, due to how badly Yorke treated them.
At some point, Yorke met and married a woman named Jenna, and they had a son named Noah.
On Yorke's watch as a prison guard, Yorke was unaware of this, but he was the main reason why the rest of his coworkers were corrupted by inmate Daniel Brickwell, as well as why Jarrett Parker tortured several inmates at Level Two.
After Oliver Queen's fight with Ricardo Diaz and his surrendering himself to the FBI, Yorke oversaw Oliver's arrival to Slabside Maximum Security Prison. After Oliver Queen became an inmate, Yorke greeted him in his cell every morning when the latter woke up. After breaking up a fight with Oliver against Danny Brickwell, Ben Turner and Derek Sampson, Yorke sent Turner to solitary confinement. Yorke went to Oliver's cell and blamed him for starting the fight, even though Oliver was trying to defend himself, before telling him he had a visitor. The next day, Yorke went to Oliver's cell to inform him that he had another visitor. One day when the inmates were released into the courtyard, Oliver knocked out Brickwell before proceeding to attack another inmate who had knocked him out in an earlier fight. Yorke ordered him to stand down but Oliver ignored him, so Yorke took him into solitary.[2]
After two days, Yorke released Oliver. While inspecting Oliver's cell, Oliver tried to warn him that Brickwell wanted him dead, but he ignored his warning and told Oliver that he was nothing but a vigilante. Oliver later took matters in his own hands, by stabbing himself and blaming it on Yorke to get him fired, despite Yorke denying it.
After Yorke's removal from Slabside and Oliver breaking up Brickwell's fight club and Jarrett Parker's unethical practices, Yorke was replaced by a guard named Felton as Oliver's handler. Similar to Yorke, Felton made sure everyone in prison followed the rules, especially Dunbar.
Personality
- "The right thing? Is that what you were doing, running around in that costume? You turned the law into a joke. The Green Arrow's very existence invited criminals into your city. You think you're some kind of hero. Have you ever stopped to think maybe all you've done is make things worse?"
- —Peter Yorke to Oliver Queen[src]
Yorke is extremely arrogant to the point of being delusional, as he believes that he runs Slabside Maximum Security Prison, when it is actually the prison warden, despite the clean record that he has, Yorke is not well-liked by both the guards and inmates; due to how badly he treats the inmates and tries to get on their nerves for his own amusement; such as Oliver Queen. As Oliver, Stanley Dover and Ben Turner noted, Yorke is a hard-ass, jerk, an dick, as he treats the the inmates like slaves. Yorke is also arrogant towards individuals that he believes are inferior to him, like Oliver. Yorke seems to enjoy treating Oliver badly most of all since he would childishly wake him every morning by him slamming his baton on the cell bars, mocking him about how everyday is a beautiful day, Yorke even blamed Oliver for starting a fight with Ben, Danny Brickwell and Derek Sampson even though they started it, forcing Oliver to defend himself. Yorke even listens in on Oliver's conversations whenever he is being visited, for example, Yorke listened in on Oliver speaking to John Diggle when their conversation was no concern of his.
Yorke always finds a way to anger every inmate and likes to take out his issues on them, after Oliver assaulted Brickwell, Ben and Sampson, a fight that Yorke did not break up, he angered Oliver by telling him that they both know better Oliver is not a hero; due to Yorke growing up with wealthy children who thought the laws didn't apply to them and mocked Oliver about being an inmate at Slabside as well as calling him a bastard, mocking him about Robert Queen's death, even before Oliver retaliated against Brickwell, Sampson and Turner, Yorke warned him to not be a hero. Yorke seems to dehumanize the inmates, like Oliver, by calling them by their inmate numbers as opposed to their real names.
Yorke ignores warnings from other inmates, as when Oliver tried to warn him that someone (Brickwell) wants him dead. Yorke thought Oliver was lying and insulted Oliver by claiming Oliver made Star City dangerous by being the Green Arrow. Yorke claims to know Oliver very well due to having grown up with children who were wealthy that thought the laws didn't apply to them. As it turns out, Yorke didn't know Oliver that well.
Yorke was responsible for making the prison more dangerous than ever. Yorke was unaware of this, but Brickwell corrupted all the guards in prison, including his best friend B. Dunbar. Yorke was also unaware that Jarrett Parker, the chief psychiatrist of the prison, was working with the rest of his coworkers to lobotomize the inmates down at Level Two (Yorke knew that Level Two existed, but he was the only prison guard unaware of what Parker was doing down there). Yorke was very delusional thinking that Slabside was the way he wanted it to be and that he ran the prison.
Eventually, Yorke started to get on every inmate and guard's nerves, to the point that they wanted him out of the prison; dead or fired, these negative traits of his made it simple for his co-workers; such as B. Dunbar, to believe that he tried to kill Oliver, especially; due to several complaints made about him by the other inmates, his self-righteous nature aside, as noted by Oliver, he was at his core still a law-abiding man who kept the other guards in line. Yorke being a law-abiding man is the reason why Brickwell wanted him gone. Brickwell knew Yorke would eventually learn about Dunbar and the other guards being corrupted, so Brickwell vowed to personally kill Yorke if Oliver didn't. Yorke was a competent prison guard as he was the only guard always breaking up the fights in the prison that the inmates would cause.
Although, Yorke believes in the letter of the law and insulted Oliver for breaking the law as the Green Arrow, as noted by Stanley, Yorke is willing to break the law if it means protecting his wife Jenna and son Noah. For example, Yorke was about to break the law by assaulting Oliver with a baton when Oliver mentioned to him the names of his wife and son which is not illegal. Yorke is also a very selfish man as he refused to allow Oliver to spend more time with Oliver's wife Felicity Smoak after Yorke learned she was attacked. When Oliver begged Yorke for more time, Yorke refused and reminded Oliver he was an inmate. Yorke willingly tossed a picture of Oliver's wife Felicity and son William to the ground and stepped on the picture when he was going to insult Oliver when Oliver tried to warn him about Brickwell.
Yorke was too delusional to realize this, but Oliver saved his life. Oliver stabbed himself and blamed it on Yorke to get him fired in order to protect Yorke from Brickwell, who was targeting him. Dunbar, Yorke's best friend, knew Yorke didn't stab Oliver, but still had Yorke fired from the prison. When Oliver was confronting him about his bad behavior, Yorke refused to explain why he does all this and tried to intimidate Oliver into leaving; proving that Yorke is nothing more than a coward, who tries to put up a tough act. Although Yorke was delusional and abusive towards the inmates, Turner, an inmate that Yorke also abused, credited Oliver for saving Yorke as Turner knew Dunbar was on Brickwell's payroll and that Brick was going to kill Yorke. Despite this, Yorke is still believed to be a corrupt guard who was fired for trying to stab Oliver to death with a knife.
Appearances
Arrow
Season 6
Season 7
- "Inmate 4587"
- "The Longbow Hunters"
- "Crossing Lines" (mentioned)
- "The Slabside Redemption" (mentioned)
Trivia
- It is unknown if Yorke learned about Jarrett Parker's practices after Oliver helped to expose them to the public. It's possible that Yorke did in fact learn about them and wondered if Parker wanted him dead. It would explain why Yorke hasn't tried to get revenge on Oliver since he holds him high regard. But this also seems very unlikely given how delusional Yorke is.
- Yorke shares some similarities with Jacob Kane in season one of Batwoman. Although both Yorke and Kane share similarities, it seems possible that Yorke would disrespect Jacob since Jacob is from a rich family.
- Both work in a law enforcement organization.
- Both believed that the presence of vigilantes invited criminals into their cities.
- Both were wrongfully blamed for crimes they didn't commit
- Both served the in the military prior to working in a law enforcement branch.
Behind the scenes
- Ryan Jefferson Booth, Yorke's actor, previously portrayed Andre in DC's Legends of Tomorrow.
